


what's wrong with that? (Janis&Regina)

by peachesandplumsmotherfucker



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Cady just doesn't exist, F/F, Karen and Gretchen are cute, Regina hates winter, up north
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 12:13:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21036068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachesandplumsmotherfucker/pseuds/peachesandplumsmotherfucker
Summary: Janis and Regina get roomed together at a five day field trip up north. they're gay period.





	what's wrong with that? (Janis&Regina)

**Author's Note:**

> hey i have a bunch of other rejanis fics you should check out.
> 
> also I just saw the touring production of Mean Girls and that shit slapped (Mariah: Slapped!)
> 
> please leave kudos and comment it means a lot to me <3

Regina hated winter, too cold for skirts that showed off her thighs and tank tops that highlighted her collarbone. Her natural freckles that trailed from her face to her cleavage would slowly fade away and so would her honey tan. The ice wasn’t ready for her heels and the snow melted on whatever clothing she had on. To Regina, hating things came like breathing, she hated geeks, wannabes, ugly people, synthetic makeup brushes, low thread counts, the color orange, turtles, lavender, math, caramel popcorn, and winter. The more she hated things, the more powerful she felt, and what’s wrong with a little power?

~

Regina scoffed, filled with ice cold rage. They’re going on a fucking field trip? What are they five? Not only that, it’s a wilderness field trip, up north. There’s no way she’s gonna be caught dead in knee deep snow, wearing snow pants. Regina just about gagged at the thought of it. “You’ll be staying in cabins, 4 to a room, that we assign.” There was general sounds of displeasure. “I know you all want to be with your friends but we want you to get to know new people, hopefully get rid of this schools click problem.” Regina scrunched up her face at the teachers words. She raised her hand. “Ms. Wilson, I personally believe that we don’t have a click problem and shouldn’t be subjected to sleep in a room with a bunch of randos.” There was scattered agreement around the room. “That’s enough, we teachers have final say, and if you don’t want them to be randos, I suggest you start mingling now.” Regina gaped in defeat, so used to getting what she wants.

~

“Dad there is no way I’m going on this trip, just sign the form and say I can’t go.” Regina never had to plead this much, but her mom was out of town. “No, sorry Regina, but you’re going on that field trip, end of discussion.” She let out an angry growl and stormed into her room. If her stupid mom wasn’t in stupid New York she wouldn’t have to go on this stupid fucking field trip.

~

A week rolled by and it was actually happening, Regina packed, came to school, got on a bus, and was on her way to a shitty five days. She had spent the whole week prior unhappy with the idea of doing shit in the snow that when one of the teachers was about to read off the rooms, it dawned on her she wouldn’t be able to be with Gretchen and Karen. All she could think was if she was stuck with a geek, a wannabe, or someone ugly, she was going to lose it. God what if she was stuck with all three? She was so zoned out in her own thought she almost missed her name. “Room Four, Regina, Katie O, Penelope, and Janis.” Regina thought her head might actually explode, Janis? No fucking way. She was not going to spend five days with fucking Janis. “Oh, Katie and Penelope didn’t come, so it’s just you two.” Regina almost burst, alone, with Janis, for five days? No fucking way. “There will be no switching, your names are written on your doors and we can hear when your door opens at 3 am.” Regina was trapped, in a room, with Janis. She might actually kill someone, maybe even herself. “Oh and we forgot to mention, we’re taking phones.” The bus broke into whispers about this phone policy. “Alright carry on with your chatter, we are almost there.” Regina turned to Karen. “This is going to be the worst fucking trip ever.” Karen just nodded, not really listening to anyone, just playing with the pom pom on her hat. Regina slumped into her chair.

~

Regina spent as much time from the bus to the cabin as humanly possible. She was trying to find anyway to get out of her room, including telling a teacher she was infectiously sick, the teacher told her to get checked by the nurse and she would still be in her room. Finally after Gretchen fake crying for Regina to be in her room, which once again the teachers did not budge, Regina started for her room. She said goodbye to Karen and Gretchen, her room was at the opposite end of the hall. The hall made a sharp left turn but before she turned she heard two people talking. “Damian I can’t do it.” It had to be Janis, no one else committed social suicide by befriending the gay kid, plus Regina knew that voice. “She’s evil and-” Her tone was harsh, it made Regina want to punch her. “Janis.” Damian cut her off with an empathetic ring in his voice. “She’s a life ruiner.” Regina could hear her voice crack and the anger residing all over Regina’s face melted. She almost felt, bad? She brushed it away, who cares that that lesbo has hurt feelings it’s not her fault anyway. She could hear footsteps moving towards her so she shuffled pretending she wasn’t leaned up against the wall eavesdropping, Damian walked past her with a surprised look and Regina just rounded the corner like nothing happened. She didn’t act surprised to see her, she kept a strong, harsh gaze into Janis’s eyes. “Are you going to let me in?” Janis was stood in front of the door. She rolled her eyes and stepped away from the door. Regina walked in and put her stuff down. There were two sets of bunk beds and one bathroom. It was a very small space, especially one to share with Janis of all people. Janis after a moment quickly walked in, set her stuff down, and shuffled away without a word. Regina put her stuff on the top bunk on the opposite side of Janis’s stuff. This would be a long week.

~

The class spent the day outside and doing “educational” shit. Regina was cold, and tired, and wanted to go home. But no, she had to go to a room that she shared with fucking Janis. The whole class was hanging out in the common area of the cabins. She saw Janis and Damian across the room talking and laughing. Damian glanced at her quickly, Regina knew she should look away but her eyes felt so comfortable just staring. She saw Damian say something before Janis turned over her shoulder and looked at Regina. Their eyes met for too long before Regina snapped out of it and looked back at Gretchen and Karen. “Regina are you okay?” Gretchen tilted her head at her, like a shitzu. “Yeah.” Regina’s words were a bit too harsh because Gretchen's face dropped. “Sorry.” Her and Karen looked down and away from Regina out of fear. Regina exhaled, feeling a tang of regret. Damnit Janis.

~

That night Regina hesitantly went to her room. Janis wasn’t there. Regina did her nightly routine and showered, changed into pajamas, and got into bed. A bed that still smelled like home since they had to bring their own bedding. If she closed her eyes, it was like she was in her room, except it was so damn cold. She had been lying there for a while, she would go on her phone if she had it, and Janis still wasn’t there. She must’ve found someway to sneak into a room with Damian, for sure no other girls would take her. Regina started dozing off when the door opened, letting the warm glow of the hall flood in. She kept her eyes closed. She heard Janis shut the door and walk over to her bed. The sound of her digging through her duffle bag then head to the bathroom and shut the door. Finally she heard her leave the bathroom and get into bed. Regina suddenly became over-aware of how she was sleeping, she was stiff. Janis eventually stopped stirring and Regina became more comfortable and fell asleep.

~

When the teachers came knocking on everyone's doors to wake up at seven am, it was freezing. Regina’s fuzzy blanket and comforter couldn’t even keep the cold out. She looked down at Janis who was still lying down covered in her thin blanket shivering uncontrollably. Part of Regina thought she should laugh, the other wanted to give her the second fuzzy blanket she draped over her mattress so it felt like she was sleeping on a cloud. Instead she just got out of the bed and made her way for the bathroom. When she got out, Janis somehow had already got dressed and left. Regina got dressed and made her way to breakfast, but not before last minute grabbing the second fuzzy blanket and throwing it on Janis’s bed.

~

They ate breakfast, Janis and Regina as far away as possible and went in groups to do more nature shit. The groups were obviously split by rooms and they would be the groups they were in the rest of the trip. Regina was jealous of Karen and Gretchen being in the same group and not stuck with a bunch of nobodies. They had to do some shit called “Winter Survival” Regina had no idea what that meant but it sounded like something she’s hate, and she was right. They were standing in the snow and ice in the middle of a pine forest being told they had to make a fire with three matches, one newspaper and whatever they could find. Luckily they were split into groups of three and Regina was not with Janis, Regina’s group mates were some basic girls named something dumb like Bridget or Lisa. They seemed pretty scared of her so they did all the work while Regina sat on a fallen tree. Regina stared off into the distance and saw Janis building a tent looking thing out of sticks. She wasn’t wearing gloves which looked painful. Her group mates just stood and watched her, they looked pretty basic too, but slightly more popular than Regina’s group. Janis stood up from her crouched position and grabbed the matches. She swiped the first one and it broke. The two girls scoffed and Regina could hear a distant sound of them saying “space dyke”. They pushed her into the fire pit, Janis landing hands first into the rocks surrounding the pit. Regina winced for her. Janis didn’t get up, the girls just laughed and walked away. Regina got up from her tree and walked away from her group. She walked to where Janis was from behind. Regina could see her left hand bleeding from the sharp rock. She took off her left glove and threw it next to Janis’s head. Janis turned towards the pink glove then flipped over and faced Regina, still laying down. She grabbed the glove and threw it at Regina, who caught it. “I don’t need your pity.” Regina rolled her eyes. “Just take the damn glove.” She stretched her arm out and Janis took the glove and Regina pulled her to her feet. Janis put the big wool glove on and Regina immediately turned and walked back towards her group.

~

That night they went to bed much like the night before, they didn’t talk, didn’t even interact, and went to bed at different times. However, what was different about this night is Regina dreamed, she dreamed about someone she never thought she’d ever dream about again. Regina’s dreams never stuck when she woke up, so when she woke up in the morning with a hazy head she couldn’t remember what the dream was about, but she definitely knew Janis was in it. She remembers them being civil, but the butterflies in her stomach led her to think it was more than civil, friendly? Loving? She brushed the thought away and got out of bed. She wasn’t looking where she was going and bumped into Janis with her ass, it made both girls stumble a little. “God, sorry!” Regina just quickly hopped into the bathroom. Once she was in there it occured that she hasn’t apologized to anyone, let alone Janis, in 2 years. Her face eventually stopped flushing and she left the bathroom. She expected Janis to already be gone again but she was still there sitting on her bed in her pajamas, staring into space. Regina caught her eye and she hopped up, grabbing assorted clothes from her bed. As Janis made her way to the bathroom she turned to Regina who was putting stuff on her face in front of the mirror. “Hey thanks for the blanket.” Her words lacked much feeling, maybe confusion. Regina turned to her, still no makeup on, and was about to say something, when Janis’s nipples caught her eyes. God it was cold in here, Regina quickly turned back towards the mirror. “Whatever.”

~

Regina tried all day to forget the interactions between her and Janis, but couldn’t shake them. They burned in her eyes, when she looked at the snow all she saw was Janis’s face in the morning. How she sat on the bed after Regina apologized, when she thanked her, it gave her a familiar feeling. How she felt in the dream, so blissful. Regina could feel her toes going numb inside her boots, but her once numb heart was only now starting to feel.

~

At dinner she kept making eye contact with Janis, the first like eight times Regina just looked away, but she decided to take a risk. She was staring down at her spaghetti but finally looked up at Janis, who was already looking at her, Regina quirked the corner of her mouth up into a half smile. She couldn’t help but notice Janis get flustered and look down at her food. Gretchen and Karen were too busy talking about how shitty the mattresses here were. Well that’s what Gretchen was talking about, Karen was just nodding along, occupied with other thoughts.

~

They started leaving the dining hall when Karen grabbed Regina’s arm. “Can I talk to you?” Regina looked confused but went along with it, waving Gretchen off, in her disappointment. Karen pulled her to the icy sidewalk away from where everyone was walking. “Karen what’s up?” She was worried she babied Karen too much sometimes, she’s not as stupid as she seems, she’s really intuitive sometimes. She knows something is wrong with someone before they do. “I was wondering if it’s wrong to be friends with someone that’s not you or Gretchen.” Regina just furrowed her brows and tilted her head. Karen was looking down and away, like she did something wrong. “Why?” Karen exhaled and looked up. “Because there’s a girl in my room and she’s really nice.” She still looked like she was saying something wrong, like Regina would snap at any moment and scream at her. Regina’s eyes softened and she smiled. “Go for it Karen.” She grabbed her arm in approval which made Karen’s face light up. Karen walked away, probably going to find whoever this girl was. Regina stood alone and realized, it’s not wrong to be friends with other people. Maybe she should start getting that point across, and maybe she should stop making her friends fear her. ‘What are you mother Theresa?’ A voice in her head popped up. Maybe she should stop listening to that voice.

~

Karen wouldn’t stop talking about this new girl, Grace. She seemed nice, and Karen was happy, Gretchen kept looking at Regina, surprised she hadn’t shut this down yet. Regina just smiled and let her go on and on. The common room ended up being pretty fun, they played card games, and the three actually joined the rest of the group. The only people who didn’t join were the weird anime kids, the couple that were fucking in the bathroom, and Janis and Damian. It was a shame, cause it was really fun.

~

The three walked to their dorms, Karen’s was first so it was just Regina and Gretchen. “So are we allowed to have other friends?” It was out of the blue but Regina was just waiting for her to say something, she looked like she was going to burst. Regina smiled, the same smile she gave Karen earlier. “Yes, Gretch.” She left it at that and Gretchen walked into her room, no further questions.

~

Janis walked into the dorm and Regina was at the mirror, hair wet from the shower, and rubbing shit on her face. Janis walked up next to her, hesitantly. “Um, I kinda forgot to give this back to you.” She held out a bloody, pink, wool, glove. Regina grabbed it and looked down at the bloodstain right in the center. “Oh, thanks” There was sarcasm dripping off every word. Janis cowered. “Uh yeah sorry.” She was rubbing the back of her neck. Regina was quick to fix it. “Kidding!” She had her hand out in front of her to prove it. She’s never been this apologetic in a very long time. ~ When Regina woke up in the middle of the night with the overwhelming feeling of having to pee. She shuffled out of bed, still groggy, her feet felt tingly. She missed one of the steps on the ladder and landed strange on her foot, twisting her ankle. She let out a cry of pain. Before crumpling to the ground. Her ankle was throbbing and she was cursing herself for picking a top bunk. “Regina?” Janis’s early morning voice called out. Regina just mumbled a “mhm” in response. She heard shuffling and a light turned on. They both squinted and Janis rushed over to Regina, still on the floor. She sat in front of her, examining her ankle. She reached out and hovered over her skin. Regina sensed her uneasiness. “Go ahead.” They both spoke soft, since it was pretty early. Janis touched around her ankle, sometimes making Regina wince. “Any tenderness?” Regina just made a soft moan in response to her touching a painful spot. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Regina laughed lightly. “Not really.” Janis smiled. “Can you stand?” She helped her up by the arm. When she put weight onto her ankle she yelped and fell backwards. Janis caught her and propped her back up. The feeling of being in Janis’s arms gave her a familiar feeling in her stomach. I guess the vibe of the dream was friendly. Janis helped walk her to the bed underneath Regina’s top bunk. She grabbed the comforters off of the old bed and handed them to Regina. Regina got situated and Janis turned off the light. Regina realized she forgot to pee, but there was no way in hell she was standing up again, she’ll pee in the morning.

~

Janis helped Regina out of bed, her ankle still sore. Regina had to change sitting down on her bed which took a while. She started when Janis went to the bathroom, but still had not shirt on when Janis walked out. Regina could see her face getting red and her looking away pretending she didn’t see anything. Regina didn’t really mind though, if that had happened before Regina would have called her a dyke for peeking and told everyone. But Regina was sick of being mean to her, except no one outside this room could ever know.

~

Janis tried to help Regina walk to the commons, but Regina brushed her off and whispered “I’m fine” before limping off. Regina could tell Janis was a little hurt and so was Regina cause walking on that really fucking hurt.

~

Karen and Gretchen asked about her ankle and Regina told them, just left out the Janis part of it all. After awhile they gave each other a look and then back at Regina. “So how’s rooming with, you-know-who?” Gretchen asked, she sounded like she was hiding something. Regina’s mind flooded with any possible answer besides the truth. She stammered for a while before Karen stopped her. “Regina you know how you said it was okay to have friends besides us?” She just nodded, unsure of what to say. “Well I really like Grace, and all I’m saying is if you want to do that, then we’re not stopping you.” Regina was taken aback. Did they just give her their blessing the befriend Janis? She did not expect that one coming, they’d been trained to hate her. Regina decided to stop this conversation from continuing so she just nodded and started talking about anything else.

~

Today they were doing something that had to do with GPS’s and breaking into pairs. Everyone shuffled to their pairs, everyone except Regina and Janis. And that’s when something clicked in Regina’s brain, she’s the most popular girl in school, Janis is the least popular girl in school, and they’re exactly the same. Regina spent so much time wanting everyone to love her and hating everyone, but that just made everyone hate her. She might be popular but she only has two friends who up until yesterday were pretty terrified of her. So why does she care if she’s caught hanging out with Janis? She stood up, and semi limped towards Janis. Her ankle was feeling slightly less painful but not perfect. Regina held out her hand and Janis took it, standing up. “I’ll go grab our GPS.” Janis offered walking away. Right away Regina got some looks but she didn’t mind.

~

They started heading out into 2 hours of alone time in the snowy forest. Janis looked down at their map and GPS. “We’re not actually gonna do that right?” Regina was not about to walk around and look for checkpoints in a huge ass forest. Janis threw the map to her side. “No fucking way.” They laughed together and walked in peaceful silence. They were already pretty far from the start area when Janis pointed in the distance. “Look at that little shed thing.” There was a shed with one small slit in the front, and a door in the back. “Oh we gotta check that out!” Regina picked up her pace, ahead of Janis, towards the structure. She got to the door and it creaked open, the smell of lumber pouring out. It was all wood and dusty. Normally Regina would never be caught dead in a place like this, but at this moment she just wanted somewhere to camp out for a while. Janis looked at a sign next to the door. “It’s an observatory, to watch the wildlife.” Regina let an “ah” noise out and sat in one of the chairs in front of the slit in the wall. Janis sat next to her and leaned back in her chair. “You know I was surprised you picked me.” Regina’s gaze shifted from the slit to Janis’s eyes. “What changed?” Regina rubbed her glossy lips together at the girls question. “I thought.” She left it open ended, wanting her to want to ask more. Janis fell for it. “About?” Regina smiled a little but it soon faded. “I hate winter. And I’m so used to hating it. And now I’m up here, trapped with...winter. And the longer I spend here to more I realize, I like snow! It’s really pretty.” Regina nervously played with her fingers and was feeling hotter by the second. “Are we still talking about the weather?” Janis sounded like she knew the answer already. Regina looked up, her heart was racing. “Yes! No, maybe?” Janis laughed and leaned forward so her elbows rested on her knees. “Well you know I like winter too.” Regina’s eyes widened. “Really?” Janis laughed and leaned back again. “Yeah.” She looked down and her expression went serious. “And I haven’t seen winter in so long that being stuck here with winter has really shown me how much I missed it.” Regina felt a tang in her heart. They both looked at each other at the same time and Regina felt that familiar feeling ever since that dream. Regina stood up, barely feeling pain in her ankle and stepped forward towards the other chair. Janis stood up too, sliding her face up, it was only an inch away from Regina’s. Regina took off her mitten (not the bloodsoaked ones her extra pair that she packed) and put her bare hand into Janis’s hair. The heat from her scalp warmed Regina’s cold fingers. Janis finally leaned forward and kissed her. Finally. And Regina finally knew why her parents started to get weird about how close they were in 8th grade. She finally knew why Regina had to be the one to call Janis a dyke. Finally knew how easy it would have been to reverse the situation. But all Regina knew now is she was finally ready.

~

They spent their time in the forest very well now that they both had come out...about loving winter. When they got back, they still sat with their usual people at lunch. They didn’t even try to hide staring at each other this time. “So you did it?” Karen’s sweet voice chimed in. Regina turned to her confused. “You told Janis you liked her.” Karen said it so matter of fact, Regina shushed her and told her to be quieter. “How did you know?” Regina was whispering but you could still hear how shocked she was. “I haven’t seen you look at anyone like that.” Regina could almost cry at that if she wasn’t so damn shocked. “We totally don’t care.” Gretchen chimed in. Regina turned to her and grabbed her hand. God she felt on top of the world.

~

They all had to listen to some guy talk about Raptors for an hour before dinner. It was extremely boring but the amount of eye fucking her and Janis had was pretty worthwhile. It made the fact that they roomed together a lot better.

After dinner Regina’s group had some kitchen cleanup duty that every other group had to do the other days of the week. “We need two people in the kitchen washing dishes.” Regina didn’t like wet food. “I’ll do it.” Janis was looking at her and raising her hand. Now that’s something she likes. “Me too.” Regina had her hand raised and didn’t even bother looking at Janis, she just smirked. When everybody else left to do god knows what, Janis and Regina were alone at last. They grabbed aprons and gloves and were ready to get to work, okay that’s totally a lie, they just wanted to hang out. Regina was drying dishes and Janis was washing them. They were talking about everything they had wanted to tell each other the past two years. Regina talked about her crazy mom and Janis talked about her crazy dad. Somehow they got on the topic of how Janis always loved Regina’s room. “Really THE Janis Ian likes the color pink?” Regina laughed and pointed a towel at her. Janis grabbed the movable faucet hose and sprayed it at Regina from afar. Regina screamed. “Fucking bitch!” Janis couldn’t stop laughing. “Hit me again see what happens.” Regina was now holding a metal top to a pot. Janis sprayed her again and Regina deflected it with the top, like a shield, it sprayed right back at the unsuspecting Janis, who yelped. Regina put the shield down and raised her eyebrows at her. They left the kitchen equally wet which gained some strange looks from the staff. They just laughed about it till they got to the commons. “Hey we should probably change out of these wet clothes.” Regina didn’t mean to come off so sexual but it did sound like the beginning of something. Janis looked behind her shoulder at Damian sitting by Grace and Karen, they looked like they were having a good time. Janis looked back at Regina and nodded.

~

Back in their room they decided, maybe they didn’t need to change in the bathroom. Janis pulled her soaking shirt above her head and stood in her necklaces and bra. Regina had flashbacks of trying not to look at Janis’s chest, but now she had no such restraints. Regina’s cold hands grabbed Janis’s bare waist and she kissed her, harder this time. Regina took her shirt off too, sick of feeling restrained by wet fabric. The way Janis looked at her, sent her, she looked at her like she’s wanted to look at her since they first met, and maybe she did. Maybe Regina did too. Either way, they were looking at each other now. ~ Regina covered Janis’s mouth with one hand and went to work with the other. They were right next to the staff dorm so they’d have to be quiet, luckily basically everyone was still in the commons. This would prove worthwhile to the girls.

~

They walked together to the commons practically skipping and giggling. They looked like little kids, like the ten year olds they were, running around the playground, playing house. Whenever they played house as kids, Regina would be the mom and Janis would be the dad, not surprising due to the current circumstances. They went to join the rest of their friends in the commons and sat down giddy in a circle while they played Uno.

~

Uno was a bad idea for Regina and Janis, due to their competitiveness, and need to outdo each other constantly. Regina had two cards left, she was biting her lip and getting impatient. It was on her color she just needed to get through the others. “Plus four.” Regina gasped and death glared Janis. “You whore!” Janis laughed which made Regina furious. She smacked her hand on the pile of cards and grabbed four unwillingly. The other four just watched in horror of this bloodbath between the girls. Even though Regina lost in the end she still had so much fun, but she would never tell Janis that. ~ They ended up back in their room, laughing about some joke that would forever be a memory of this place. “I’m gonna hop in the shower.” Janis shot her finger guns and sat down on her bed. When Regina got out she was wrapped in a small thin towel with her hair in a big twist down her shoulder blades. Janis just got up and pecked her lips before heading into the bathroom herself. When Janis got out, Regina was already changed into pink plaid pants and a sweatshirt with oranges on it. Janis changed while Regina took off her makeup and got ready for bed. Janis went to go lay down in her bed but Regina stopped her. She walked up to her and grabbed her hands. She walked her to her bed, comforter spilling all over the twin mattress. Regina sat down, still interlocked with Janis’s hands, looking up at her hopefully. “I don’t want to be cold tonight.” Janis smiled and grabbed the second fuzzy blanket to bring into Regina’s bed. When they fell asleep, Janis was holding Regina, legs intertwined. They were warm.

~

They woke up and Regina was practically taking up the whole bed with her gorgeous long legs. They waited until the very last moment to get up, which meant Regina and her went to breakfast with messy hair, no makeup, and pajamas on, very unusual of Regina. They rolled in late and got food. They sat down with Damian and the girls, and some other girl Gretchen picked up along the way. Damian looked them up and down. “What took you so long?” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively which made Janis kick him in the shin. Karen and Gretchen “ooh”ed together which made Regina roll her eyes, hard. The two new girls looked very confused. “Sorry they’re always like this.” Regina said to them, leaning down the table to catch their eyes.

~

The staff said they were doing a “ropes course” Regina didn’t know what that meant but she guessed she wouldn’t like it. When they got to the course she saw this giant structure with tightropes and platforms and a zipline above a cliff that leads to a river. “Fuck no.” She whispered to Janis who was staring, unbelieving, at the structure as well. There were giant snowflakes falling everywhere and Regina genuinely thought she might die. ~ Yep she was definitely going to die. She was on the platform right before the tightrope, with no handholds by the way. She held so tight to her harness her fingers were light purple. “You got this!” Her partner yelled, can you guess who Regina chose? Regina cursed under her breath and started forward. Janis was cheering on the solid ground, which made Regina want to strangle her. Finally after the last three shaky steps Regina was on the platform. She unclipped one at a time into the next obstacle and took a minute to catch her breath. The tightrope was the hardest obstacle so she was pretty good the rest of the obstacles. At the last obstacle she had to clip into a zipline. The feeling of jumping off the platform and sailing through the cold, harsh air was exhilarating. It felt like kissing Janis in that freezing cold shed all over again. “Whoo!” Regina let out a battle cry that made Janis giggle, Regina could hear it even over the whirring of the zipline. She finally unhooked on solid ground and her weak knees regained strength. Janis high fived her and Regina took off her sweaty gloves. “Now let’s see you up there.” Regina smiled at the idea of Janis completing the course. Janis shook her head and kept walking. “You’ll be the death of me George.”

~

Regina loved winter, the snow, the sweaters. Warming up by a fire, the soft white light reflecting rainbows in the piled up snow. The smell of cinnamon and the taste of candy canes. The soft snow cradled every curve when you layed in it and the snowflakes stuck in her eyelashes and hair, white looked good on her. Regina sat on the bus and realized she loved so many things, Karen, Gretchen, the taste of peppermint, the color purple, cats, hanging plants, satin, museums, iced coffee, and Janis Ian. Regina stared out the window listening to her soft music in her earbuds while Gretchen slept. Thinking about a girl on another bus, a girl she loved, a girl she’s loved for a while now, a girl she doesn’t think she’ll ever stop loving.

~fin~


End file.
